Ethereum (ETH) Regains 2nd Place amid Huge XRP Movements and a Green Start to the Year

Ethereum has gained a huge 11 percent in value today, adding $1 billion to its market cap and surpassing XRP to regain second position on crypto market cap charts. It’s price increased from a low $131 last night to its current level of just over $148 at around midday (UTC) today.

The move means Ethereum has regained 90 percent of the losses it suffered towards the end of last year but will likely face resistance at previous support levels between $170 and $180 if it continues to climb. This month will be host to Ethereum’s much-anticipated Constantinople Fork which plays a significant role in Ethereum’s move from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol, a change designed to improve transaction speed and scalability issues.

While not quite to the extent of Ethereum, XRP has also enjoyed gains today, increasing by 3.4 percent with a market cap of $14.8 billion. The coin is now trading at $0.36, up from $0.34 earlier today. Yesterday, almost three billion XRP tokens worth a whopping $1 billion were moved in a succession of seven transactions between various Ripple Escrow and Ripple OTC distribution wallets. The moves were revealed to be part of Ripple’s Escrow feature, which is designed to release a certain number of coins on a monthly basis.

Other coins that have made impressive gains today include Litecoin (LTC), which is up 6.5 percent at $32 and EOS, up 4.6 percent $2.70. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $3,822, up 3 percent, with the overall cryptocurrency market up approximately $7 billion since the year began.